Troll's Remorse

"Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream..."
Julius Caesar - II.i

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Who knew that Guise Faux might have a conscience? Certainly not I.

But just as RP was going to press with a ruthless April Fools' Day Tale of Radio Paranoia, a burnt offering certain to please baby Ishtar on the eve of her birthday... we suffered a pang of regret.

And not only regret - for one insane moment we even considered deleting the entire blog, or at least hiding it for awhile. What could be important enough for a lifelong, unrepentant, born and bred under a bridge troll to reconsider his genetic avocation? Therein lies a tale too convoluted to tell with any coherence in a single blog entry. So we opt for obtuse brevity, thinking aloud.

Long story short, after a March of much madness, we've learned indirectly through a rat's maze of channels that one of our favorite subjects of satire - and, to be fair, also a source of constructive inspiration - the Mad March Hare, is more seriously ill than we'd realized. Extraordinary individuals who accomplish great things are often very flawed. And in his thrashings, blusters and appeals to the heavens, we are reminded of that ode to ancient warriors:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Paradoxically we are also reminded of the risk involved in hesitating to strike when the time is right - now, half past the Ides of March Hare - when a valiant but potentially dangerous foe is reeling along the ropes, when failure to grasp the victory may be seen not only as foolish weakness but as unwanted pity, an insult to a wounded warrior who'd rather go down fighting.

Because part of the motivation for our Tales of Radio Paranoia is not merely satire - and certainly not mean-spirited hubris - but constructive commentary in the guise of parody, we hesitate for at least a moment to reflect upon the human being beneath the masked character who no longer seems to know where his armor ends and his fragile skin begins.

So, for now, Crusader Rabbit, the stage is yours. Use it well.

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Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

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Blog of the now: "Confession of a long-time internet troll," from Fearless Blogging, an interesting concept in blogging - anonymous and open to all. (The article is interesting to RP because it differs from our concept of trolling, which is subtle, never openly abusive and intended only to motivate others to choose their own responses.)

Video of the now: "Do You Fear Sleep?" by The Moscow Coup Attempt with Vera Ostrova vocals. Not new, but one of the best musical backgrounds for the popular San Francisco Market Street 1905-1906 film. Not many views on any TMCA video and most of them are fascinating, melding radio sounds with ambient electronica. Be the first from your dreary cubicle prison to bore your coworkers talking about it.